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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon request
ISBN 978-1-61519-663-0
Ebook ISBN 978-1-61519-664-7
Cover design, text design, and illustrations by Beth Bugler
Cover photographs by John Taggart (food), Storm Garner (crowd), and iStock.com/Alex Levine (lights, front and back)
Roti John (Omelet Sandwiches) 204 The Tham Siblings, Lion City Coffee ....... 206
Singaporean Nasi Lemak with Fried Chicken 208 Chai tow kueh (Fried Radish Cake)
209
39 Indonesia Hendra Lie, Warung Jancook .
recipes by type
FINGER FOODS AND OTHER SMALL BITES
Akra (Malanga Fritters) 33
Puerto Rican Rellenos de papa (Stuffed Potato Croquettes) 37
Potato and Cheese Pierogi 89
Akara (Brown Bean Fritters) 119
Taameyya (Falafel) 122
Mixed Pakoras 157
Beef Momos with Hot Sauce 162
Jhal muri (Spiced Puffed Rice Snack) 165
Shingara (Vegetable Samosas) 168
Fuska (Stuffed Semolina Crisps) 171
Kai look kuey (Son-in-Law Eggs) 185
Khanom pang (Thai Toast with Cucumber Relish) 186
Domloung chenng (Caramelized Sweet Potatoes) 195
Chai tow kueh (Fried Radish Cake) 209
Tahu gejrot (Fried Tofu) 211
Ote-ote (Vegetable Fritters) 212
Curry Fish Balls 232
Kimchi Pancakes with “Magic” Soy Sauce 238
meat and fish, front and center
Jerk Chicken 29
Guyanese Beef Patties 56
Peruvian Ceviche with Leche de tigre 62
Fiskegrot (Fish Pudding) 77
Balkan Ćevapi (Grilled Meat Patties) 91
Joojeh kabab (Yogurt Chicken Kebab) 141
Beef Chapli Kebab 151
Thịt kho (Braised Pork Belly) 190
Amok (Fish Curry) 194
Beef Rendang 198
Sisig (Chopped Pork) 225
Chicken Adobo 228
Da ji pai (Chicken Steak) 235
Dakgangjeong (Fried Chicken) 242
SANDWICHES
Pastrami Sandwich 12
Doubles (Curried Chickpea Sandwich) 46
Argentine Choripanes with Chimichurri 66
Kebda iskandarani (Chopped Liver Sandwich) 123
Bunny Chow (Chicken Curry Bread Bowl) 135
Roti John (Omelet Sandwiches) 204
SALADS
Salata dakwa (Tomato Salad) 128
Salata aswad (Eggplant Salad) 129
Laphet thoke (Tea Leaf Salad) 174
flatbreads, TORTILLAS
‘N’ MORE—WRAPPED AND STUFFED
Huaraches with Refried Beans and Nopales 16
Tacos de Birria 20
Salvadoran Chicken Tamales 24
Arepas con huevos pericos (Arepas with Scrambled Eggs) 51
Arepas de queso (Cheese Arepas) 52
Lefse (Potato Flatbread) 78
Calzone di cipolla (Onion Calzone) 84
Ukrainian Blintzes with Creamy Mushrooms 106
Injera with Spicy Red Lentils 132
Pakistani Tandoori Chicken Kati Rolls 150
Dosas with Chicken Curry 154
RICE, NOODLES, AND PASTA
Diri ak djon djon (Black Mushroom Rice) 32
Puerto Rican Arroz con Pollo (Chicken and Rice) 36
Orecchiette with Broccoli Rabe 83
Kopytka (Polish Potato Gnocchi) 88
Chicken Biryani with Tomato Chutney and Cucumber Salad 138
Masala Noodles 158
Shan khao swe (Shan Noodles) 176
Laksa Noodles 202
Singaporean Nasi Lemak with Fried Chicken 208
Lugaw (Rice Porridge) 217
See yow wong chow meen (Soy Sauce Pan-Fried Noodles) 231
SOUPS AND STEWS
Antiguan Seafood Soup 40
Trinidadian Callaloo (Taro Leaf Stew) 45
Fårikål (Lamb and Cabbage Stew) 76
Ukrainian Borscht (Beet Soup) 108
Obe ata din din (Fried Stew) 118
Khoresh karafs (Beef Celery Stew) 142
Chotpoti (Chickpea and Potato Stew) 170
Ohno kaukswe (Coconut Chicken Noodle Soup) 182
Dinuguan (Pork Blood Stew) 224
PASTRIES AND SWEETS
Salvadoran Quesadillas 25
Guyanese Pine Tarts 58
Pastéis de nata (Portuguese Custard Tarts) 72
Almond Biscotti 82
Balkan Baklava 93
Kürtős kalács (Romanian Chimney Cakes) 98
Moldovan Plăcintăs (Savory Cheese Pies) 102
Bashkir Farm Cheese Donuts 112
Persian Halva 145
Leche Flan 218
DRINKS
Champurrado (Mexican Hot Chocolate) 21
Antiguan Ginger Beer 42
Aguapanela con limón (Sugarcane Limeade) 52
Chicory Coffee 99
Sinh tố bơ (Avocado Smoothies) 190
Pandan Key Limeade 199
Introduction
John Wang
THE QUEENS NIGHT MARKET
It’s magic hour on a Saturday night: The summer heat melts away with the setting sun as a cross-section of the world gathers on a sliver of land tucked behind a science museum in Queens. Scents from Mauritius to Moldova to Mexico whet thousands of appetites. Family members come closer together, daring each other to taste morsels of far-flung origin. Children crowd the dance floor, replaced by grownups indulging in a little Cha-Cha Slide or improv tango as bedtime rolls around.
But the relaxed ease and palpable sense of joy belie the serious ambitions behind this weekly gathering: to create NYC’s most diverse, welcoming, and affordable community space—and to celebrate the people, their food, and their stories that make up this incredible international city.
In a city chock-full of food fairs, food events, and food experiences, the Queens Night Market stands out among its peers. Now entering its sixth season, the Queens Night Market is NYC’s most diverse food bazaar: It has drawn over a million patrons and averages nearly fifteen thousand visitors each Saturday night. But it’s
not trendy and fashionable, per se. It’s obsessively democratic and accessible. A quick scan of the visitors reveals a uniquely representative distribution of ethnicity, age, and socioeconomic status. The food stalls themselves tend to be multigenerational family affairs, with the younger generation often taking direction from their forebears, as three generations laugh, cook, eat, and bond under the same blue 10’ x 10’ tent.
I was born and raised in Texas, but my love affair with night markets began during the childhood summers I spent visiting family in Taiwan. While I was there, I begged daily to explore the night markets. There’s an ineffable
electricity in the air when a city gathers in a welcoming space until the wee hours, oblivious to the class or cultural divides that might otherwise separate us socially. It was a feeling I wanted to replicate in NYC.
And that’s how the Queens Night Market was born: out of my fondness for Taiwan’s ubiquitous night markets, my distaste for the skyward cost of living in NYC, and my sheer adoration for the city’s cultural and ethnic diversity. In spite of standard business school doctrine, I set out to prove that a business could cut across most socioeconomic and cultural barriers—not just in theory, but in practice. From the outset, the target demographic was literally everyone.
Living in a city that is increasingly unaffordable by the day, I was convinced that affordability was the single greatest equalizer. Besides, what’s the point of living in a “foodie city” if few people can afford to enjoy the food? So I came up with a novel $5 price cap, with a few $6 exceptions, to help ensure that the audience would be a real mosaic of ethnicity, age, and income level.
I fully expected the headwinds to prevail, but it was exactly the kind of risky, sure-to-fail project that I had given up my corporate lawyer job to pursue. In some ways, my complete lack of experience was a blessing in disguise. The inexperience allowed me to dream without the strictures of standard practices and choruses
of it-can’t-be-done, and ultimately, to create something I would actually want to attend myself.
And it worked: To date, the event has launched 300 brand-new businesses in NYC and represented over 90 countries through its food. NYC is home to more than 150 nationalities, with over 120 of them in Queens alone—and we aspire to represent all of them through our vendors one day.
StormGarner
THE QUEENS NIGHT MARKET VENDOR STORIES ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
Imet John in 2014, when he was toying with the idea of starting a night market in New York. Though I was too much of a mess to date him or anyone at the time, I fell in love with him as a friend and wanted to help actualize his dream. So using my writing and filmmaking skills, I made his first Kickstarter video, sent it to all my foodie and journalist friends, and connected him with a few people who I hoped could steer his vision toward realization.
It seems a bit risqué to admit here in a cookbook—but the truth is, as much as I love the food, I have always been more interested in the potential cultural resonance of the Queens Night Market. I believe there is some real social-healing magic to a casual, fun, accessible place—in a too-often segregated city—where the one thing I’m pretty sure everyone has in common is that we’re all curious to learn about cultures different from our own.
So in 2018, once I’d determined that John would be a permanent part of my life anyway—
we got engaged, yada yada—I launched the Queens Night Market Vendor Stories Oral History Project, to document the life-stories of a wide array of the very people who make the Queens Night Market what it is—in the hopes of preserving, if not that deep magic itself, at least some hint of its essential ingredients.
In the words of Christine Jeanjaquet, Filipina owner of the gift shop The August Tree, and the very first Queens Night Market vendor I interviewed for my oral history project in December 2018: “It’s too diverse to say there’s a minority. And the feeling of that acceptance, that community—I felt that in the Queens Night Market. [. . .] The feeling of belonging, it’s—it’s a very, very, very nice place to be at.”
My enrollment in the Columbia University oral history master’s program connected me with Doug Boyd, the trailblazing director of the Nunn Center for Oral History, who will be working with me over the next few years to prepare the long-form, openended, video-recorded interviews for permanent archiving—fifty and counting as of December 2019. My goal is to make them as accessible as possible to people around the world for future educational uses: available online with video, transcripts, indexes, hyperlinked images, and multilingual translations, wherever possible.
Why? Because, at the very least, I believe these stories—of immigration and family histories, of culinary traditions and innovations, of day-to-day existence in NYC and memories in faraway homelands—have the power to make the world a little smaller and friendlier, and to inspire adventure, curiosity, entrepreneurship, and plain old human connection.
A technical note for the method-oriented: All of the interviews used to write the narratives in this book were conducted in 2019. Due to time constraints, for the most part, I have only been able to interview one person per Queens Night Market foodvending business so far: whoever was available and willing, whether or not they are the primary chef of the
Storm testing a gluten-free version of pastéis de nata: It worked . . . but not as good as the original!
business or the writer of the recipe submitted for the book. So now you hold in your hands not just portraits of talented cooks who’ve shared their cherished recipes, but also perspectives from the spouses, siblings, children, and friends who built and supported the platforms to showcase these talented cooks’ creations. It was far from easy to choose out of several hours of audio per interviewee just a few anecdotes, a few biographical tidbits, a few quotes for each story—which is, of course, far more complex than a page or two could possibly allow. The profiles in this book do not have clear beginnings, middles, and ends. No living person’s story does. These narratives are far from complete, and that’s the point: Above all, I hope they will make you curious to ask a few follow-up questions yourself, perhaps even in person at the Queens Night Market.
Storm Garner interviewing Carlos Hon at BK Media Studios
What we and this book are all about
Despite the three hundred food vendors from over ninety countries that have participated, we resist characterizing the Queens Night Market as a “food destination.” It’s not about foie gras, uni, truffle, and lobster—with the unique price caps, it really can’t be. And it’s certainly not about microemulsions, liquid nitrogen, molecular gastronomy, and deconstructed dishes. It’s about so much more than food, food porn, or food trends. It’s about the traditions and the stories accompanying the food that our vendors have chosen to share.
The Queens Night Market is built upon the specific personal histories, passions, and hard work of these vendors. We don’t set out to debate what should be called “traditional” or “fusion,” or what constitutes cultural appropriation. We simply insist, with few exceptions, that what each vendor sells has special relevance to their personal background and cultural heritage.
As a result, there’s a sparkle in our vendors’ eyes that comes from more than merely hoping to be the next celebrity chef or flash-inthe-pan viral sensation. It comes from a desire to recreate cherished culinary memories for thousands upon thousands of hungry and engaged visitors. By participating in the Queens Night Market, vendors, cooks,
and families set out not to prove a market opportunity (although that happens in the process very often), but to come together and share a piece of themselves—and, of course, to make some unbelievable food.
While a handful of Queens Night Market vendors graduated from top culinary schools, most still have careers outside the food industry. Our vendors tend to be first- and second-generation immigrants, sharing and prolonging the culinary traditions they hold dear. Our nearly singular focus on diversity and accessibility—in a city that speaks over eight hundred languages—makes the Queens Night Market a true melting pot.
This book doesn’t pretend to represent all the voices and legacies of this remarkable city—it documents and highlights just a small sampling of the traditions that make up the culinary and cultural landscape of Queens and NYC.
The World Eats Here brings together eightyeight of the best recipes from the Queens Night Market, along with the amazing stories of more than fifty vendors and chefs who’ve shared them with us.
A recipe may be a family secret passed down through generations, an homage to a disappearing custom, the recreation of a distant fond memory, or a little-known national treasure waiting for a spark to explode it onto the international stage. The dish
may evoke a family tradition, trace a family’s path from emigration to immigration, serve as the focal point of entrepreneurial ambition, illuminate an esoteric cultural quirk, memorialize a cultural celebration, or pay tribute to parents or grandparents. In many cases, the recipes in the book are being written down and documented for the first time. Many vendors are quick to note that ingredient measurements are often adjusted to taste or according to their mood, and you should feel free to do the same!
There is a mind-boggling array of delicious food served at the Queens Night Market—but for this book, we wanted to share recipes that do not require special equipment, and whose ingredients can be found in international supermarkets or ethnic grocery stores. The shopping experience is part of the fun, and adds to the cultural takeaway of following these recipes and stories—it’s like going on a treasure hunt!
We hope you will learn to recreate the earthy umami of Haitian diri ak djon djon, the textural mélange of Burmese fermented tea leaf salad, the spongy clamminess of Eritrean injera, or the nearly overwhelming sweetness of Persian halva. And, as you enjoy the food, we hope you’ll take a moment to get to know the masterminds behind them—because, while this is a cookbook filled with amazing recipes curated by John, it’s also an anthology of compelling human portraits and unique, powerful voices from New York that were collected, transcribed, and edited by Storm.
Not all the vendors in this book will continue with the event. To some, the Queens Night Market is an entry point; to others, an interim milestone; and to others still, an end point. Someday, the actors will move on from our Saturday night festivities. Their stories, we hope, will endure. This book simply seeks to document a moment in time—a group portrait of some of the food and people who have made the Queens Night Market so special.
